Music Scene: Jay Miller picks his favorite albums of the year

By Jay N. Miller/For The Patriot Ledger

Wednesday

Dec 19, 2018 at 3:15 PMDec 20, 2018 at 2:43 PM

It's that time of year again, when everybody comes up with their Best of 2018 lists, and as usual we will start by advising that we don't get to hear everything that is released. Consequently, our collection of 2018 favorites may be even more eclectic and personal than ever, and even the concept of an album of music is rapidly shifting in these days, but there are still some fine works.

Nonetheless, here are the albums most played on our sound system, in no particular order. To steal the motto from our friends at The Narrows Center, this is, in my opinion, "music that matters." If you're need that last-minute stocking stuffer, these albums should please the real music fan.

"DOWNEY TO LUBBOCK" by DAVE ALVIN & JIMMIE DALE GILMORE (Yep Roc Records): Two of the most unique characters in Americana team up for a magnificent session. The title cut is gritty rocker tracing the biographies of both men. But aside from that, and Alvin's own "Billy the Kid and Geronimo," where they also swap verses, they alternate lead vocals in front of Alvin's touring band. The songs are simply tunes they most wanted to do, so this album includes Gilmore singing lead on Steve Young's "Silverlake," and Alvin's Johnny Cash-like deep baritone taking over on John Stewart's "July, You're a Woman," and Chris Gaffney's riveting "The Gardens." Gilmore is as always a master of nuance, whether he's turning Jesse Colin Young and the Youngbloods' old 1960s hit "Get Together" into an anthem for today, or making Woody Guthrie's classic "Deportee: Plane Wreck at Los Gatos" resonate anew. The duo get down with a final romp through Brownie McGhee's "Walk On" that is fiery and determined.

"POST TRAUMATIC" by MIKE SHINODA (Warner Brothers): Mike Shinoda is best known as one of the vocalists from the rock band Linkin Park, along with the late Chester Bennington. Shinoda would commonly do the more hip-hop type vocals for the band, but this album deftly mixes hip-hop styles with rock and r&b. Thematically this record is about Shinoda's coming to terms with Bennington's suicide, which essentially ended Linkin Park, and finding a way to go on. Songs like "Over Again," and "Nothing Makes Sense Any More" are jarring in their raw emotion, and yet transcendent. Musically the album is compelling throughout, traversing rock, r&b and hip-hop flavors, and "Crossing A Line," "Hold It Together," and "Can't Hear You Now" strike such a chord with anyone who's ever experienced loss that the disc's cathartic properties are truly breathtaking.

"AMERICA'S CHILD" by SHEMEKIA COPELAND (Alligator Records): Shemekia Copeland has been the acclaimed queen of the blues for a while now, with some of the most rocking contemporary tunes anywhere. Here, her lyrical collaborator John Hahn and she don't pull any punches as they address current matters on superb tunes--many of them anthemic--like "Ain't Got Time For Hate" and "Would You Take My Blood?" Hahn and Mary Gauthier penned "Americans" which is the best ode to inclusiveness we've ever heard. Copeland's vocals are peerless of course, and her other material here is equally notable, from a sharp cover of Ray Davies' "I'm Not Like Everybody Else," to her late father Johnny 'Clyde' Copeland's "I Promised Myself," which, like everything else here, she knocks out of the park. Copeland's mastery continues to grow with each album.

"SOMETIMES DOGS BARK AT NOTHING" by JP HARRIS (Free Dirt Records): JP Harris is just 35 but has lived an interesting life, leaving school at 14, dabbling in the Oakland punk rock scene for a few years, then ending up in Vermont for a decade, working as a carpenter and luthier. By 2011 Harris landed in Nashville, and got more serious about his music. He's got that big Johnny cash bass/baritone voice, and a style that evokes Cash, Waylon Jennings, and other classic honky tonkers. His songwriting is wonderfully evocative, from the Kris Kristofferson-like vignette "Lady in the Spotlight" to the candid self-examination "When I Quit Drinking." The title cut is a lively finger-picked ballad, based on a philosophy much like a certain football coach, "it is what it is." The fast Western swing of "Hard Road" might evoke Asleep at the Wheel, while "Jimmy's Dead and Gone" is a fast-paced hobo-on-a-train tale whose antecedents probably go back to Jimmy Rodgers. But Harris is the real deal, country music aimed more at the honky tonk than the arena, thankfully, and his fourth album is terrific.

"UNGUARDED HEART" by CARLA RYDER AND THE BLUE RIBBONS (www.CarlaRyder.com): Braintree native Ryder hasn't released new music for a few years, but the former frontwoman for the popular rock band The Mudhens has always had a talent for writing intriguing songs. Now the married mother of three kids, and a teacher/speech therapist by day, Ryder was seeking a new sound when she enlisted the Blue Ribbons--essentially an all-star team of Beantown Americana musicians. Noting that her previous songwriting was personal and often somewhat autobiographical, Ryder has said she's tried to present other people's stories in these new songs. She succeeds mightily, and the styles range all over the Americana map, from the standout torch song "One True Thing," to the heartwarming story-song "Yellow Curtains" to the rockin' barn dance "I Would be You." By the time Ryder and company uncork "Crazy California" and "Naughty Sometimes" you might think she'd joined 1970s British pub-rockers Small Faces. "She's the Trouble" suggests Tom Waits stopped off at a cabaret, while the sly shuffle "Keep Me At Bay" is simply sonic seduction. Ryder performs at Thunder Road in Somerville on January 27.

"AMONG THE GHOSTS" by LUCERO (Thirty Tigers): Nashville rebels Lucero put the alternative in alt-country, and after three decades on the road, their latest album is kind of a reflective look at their lives. Ben Nichols' vocals are gruff and often gravelly, but the arrangements are riveting and the songs are irresistibly gritty roadhouse rock. The title cut is sort of an on-the-road dream/nightmare, while "Bottom of the Sea" is sharp look at angst and even despair. "Everything Has Changed" might be viewed as a ne'er-do-well's reflections. "Cover Me" is apparently a post-Civil War tale, while "To My Dearest Wife" is a Civil War soldier's last words before going into battle. The ramshackle piano ballad "Always Been You" might be the hidden gem, encapsulating the way these guys, now family men, try to relate to the home front, with lines like the verse: "All those things that we wanted to say, Give me a chance and I'll say them today..''Cause it's always been you, It's the only thing I ever knew.."

"BY THE WAY, I FORGIVE YOU" by BRANDI CARLILE (Low Country Sound/Elektra): Nobody crafts emotional landscapes with her music like Carlile, with her stellar vocals, lyrics that cut to your heart, and those truly magnificent arrangements, often featuring her backing duo, the Hanseroth brothers. This album was produced by Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, and is full of songs of jaw-dropping beauty. The title is a phrase from the song "Every Time I Hear That Song," a wistful and affectionate breakup song, while "The Joke" posits its anti-bullying theme in a marvelous pop/classical framework that enhances the impact. "The Mother" is a fine view of how becoming a parent changes your life, and Carlile does it with as much humor as heart. "Whatever You Do" is a painful yet inspiring farewell to a former flame, and "Most of All" is the heartwarming memory of some things her parents left her. With Carlile singing lines like "I haven't seen my father in some time, But his face is always staring back at me.." more than one big macho music fan has been reduced to a puddle.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GO?" by ANTHONY GERACI (Shining Stone Records): We just wrote about Marshfield's keyboard master about a month ago, but his latest album shows you why he's a much in-demand player with blues and soul acts all over the world. Geraci utilizes a stellar cast of guests here, including regular comrades Sugar Ray Norcia and Monster Mike Welch, Mudcat Ward and Marty Richards. There's jazz and rock and blues and soul, with fine originals like "Don't The Grass Look Greener" (with a Sugaray Rayford vocal), Michelle Willson singing the evocative "Two Steps Away from The Blues," and Dennis Brennan singing the witty "Too Many Bad Decisions." But Geraci is the center of it all, with his unerring sense of melody and knack for crafting marvelous solos that tell their own story--check out "Baptized in the River Yazoo." Whatever group he's in, Geraci is always worth hearing.

"STARSEEDS" by KERRI POWERS (www.kerripowers.com): East Taunton native Kerri Powers has ranged all over the Americana spectrum in her career, but here it's her country-blues guitar work that grabs you. She still has that multi-octave voice of course, and still pens smart songs that evoke a mood or a feeling, or paint a concise picture of a person or place. But it's her guitar chops that leap out on this album, whether on the introspective "Somewhere on the Vine," or the dazzling slide guitar workout "Bicycle Man." She turns Gene Clark's "Polly" into a dreamy rumination, and flirts with Lucinda Williams gritty territory on "Grace and Harmony." Powers also revives Blind Faith's "Can't Find My Way Home" with a version haunting for its depth and vocal nuance.

"THEY CALL ME MUD" by MUD MORGANFIELD (Severn Records): Mud Morganfield will forever be known as a son of the late blues giant Muddy Waters (aka McKinley Morganfield). But Mud grew up playing bass and singing in soul bands, so his music is a bit different. A previous album, "For Pops," found Morganfield joining Kim Wilson for a collection of Waters' songs, but this album is almost all his own originals, played with his core sextet, featuring Studebaker John on harmonica, and a horn section on six of the 12 tunes. "48 Days" is a cool, midtempo blues where it's obvious he got some of dad's vocal abilities, but also has a smoother upper range. In fact, smooth soul outings like "Cheatin' Is Cheatin'" suggest Morganfield's vocals are as close to Little Milton or Johnny Taylor as they are to his father. There are a couple Muddy covers here, and also a buttery soul duet with Morganfield's daughter Lashunda Williams on "Who Loves You." But if you come for his ancestry, you'll stay for Morganfield's songwriting and soulful singing.

"THE TREES BEYOND THE TOWN" by JAY PSAROS (P,B and Jay Records): Anyone who's been in a South Shore club, or around the Boston area, has probably run into Psaros, who plays a relentless schedule of his own gigs and books dozens more for fellow musicians. His latest album expands his musical palette, with producer/drummer Lorne Entress and a core band that includes Kevin Barry on guitar and Jesse Williams on bass, with Sam Kassirer on keyboards. Savor the ethereal melancholy underlying "Dear Jane," or enjoy the groove on "Strangers Again," built around a soul organ arrangement. The title cut is a wistful memoir, set to a country rock framework, while "Hold On My Love" is thoughtful and romantic. Psaros voice seems to have matured also, relaxing from the need to project in noisy taverns, and the best example is the superb vocal colorations in "Only Love." Psaros has been opening for a wide array of touring acts at venues around New England the past few years, and this album proves he's ready for his own headlining dates. Psaros opens for Popa Chubby at the Spire Center in Plymouth tomorrow night, and plays at Hingham's Old Ship Coffeehouse on February 16.